Really looking forward to tomorrow’s slate of hoops especially number 3 Baylor versus number 5 Missouri in Waco. Baylor is pissed after getting slapped in the face at Allen Fieldhouse and will be looking to avoid two straight losses after starting out 17-0. The Bears are playing at home and need this game more than Missouri does. Missouri is effectively playing with house money, because at the beginning of the year you mark this game down as a loss and it doesn’t diminish any chance of the big 12 title.

Just like any other team the rest of the way for Missouri they will be undersized, but to me, Baylor’s style of play I think plays well into the Tiger’s hand even though so many people are pointing out what a mismatch it is. Of course Baylor will out rebound the Tigers right under the basket, but at Kansas, Baylor failed to hustle for long rebounds and allowed double digit offensive boards and that’s where I see Missouri outhustling Baylor. There should be plenty of long rebounds if the Tigers do what they should and usually do, and put up a large amount of shots from behind the arc. It will all come down to if those shots are falling on the road in an environment we don’t really know a whole lot about. Not once have we ever heard of how loud it gets at Baylor or how passionate their student section is, because usually Baylor is irrelevant. Missouri needs to come out firing and are very capable of getting out to a big lead early and forcing Baylor to slow the game down to get back in it.

I figure Quincy Acy will be on English when Steve Moore and Ricardo aren’t in the game at the same time and that will be a key matchup to watch. Acy will have his way on the offensive end when English is on him, but I also think it’s vice versa as well. If English can bring Acy out to the perimeter on defense it will help Missouri on the offensive glass. That’s just the man to man matchup problems that Missouri can exploit. Baylor’s 2-3 zone doesn’t hold up well against teams that have good ball movement and Missouri has shown they can move it around efficiently in Frank Haith’s system with the best of them. The zone also leaves open shooters on the perimeter with quick releases great looks and who has a quicker release than Marcus Denmon and Michael Dixon.

Pierre Jackson has taken advantage of his speed against teams that can’t match, but when he faces teams with guards that can hit that same speed like Taylor at Kansas and Truck Bryant at WVU they tend to struggle. Missouri is probably the fastest overall team in the nation with their small line up and have some of the quickest hands on the defensive side with Phil Pressey and Dixon picking pockets and will need to take advantage there and get Jackson to turn it over. Kansas State forced 18 turnovers against the Bears and Missouri can cause a lot more havoc on an offense than the wildcats.

Missouri needs to go up tempo and not get into a half court offensive battle with Baylor, if they do that they will lose. The Tigers need to stick to the bread and butter, shoot about 30-35 3’s and hope to connect on half. I see Missouri jumping out to a quick lead out of the gate and Baylor not responding well enough until too late and the Tigers hold on for an 81-75 victory. Although if they are missing their deep ball, Baylor could run away, we’ll see tomorrow, but I have a feeling Tiger fans at bars across Missouri will be happy and over served by 3pm.

The only thing that could make this game any better tonight when undefeated Baylor comes into the Phog is if Dickie V wasn’t calling the damn game. Vitale will do his best to ruin a great matchup with all his ooooooo are you serious and his dipsy dunksy a roo’s bullshit, but the matchup on the court is good enough to outweigh the negatives that Dick brings to the table. I know that’s a little petty, but that’s the only negative I see about this game tonight.

We all know Baylor hasn’t lost all year and that everyone outside of Lawrence believes this is supposed to be a “down” year for the Jayhawks, but throw all that shit out the window when they come to Allen Fieldhouse. A place where Baylor is 0-9, against a team that they are 2-16 against overall, but this year you can throw that shit out as well. Baylor picked a hell of year to have their best team ever. They are and should be the favorite to win the Big 12 this year. If Baylor wins tonight you can pretty much lock that up in my mind.

Baylor is loaded with NBA talent and they are a freakishly long and athletic team that very much resembles Kansas teams of the last few years. There are very few times when a team brings more talent into the Phog than what the Jayhawks have, but this is definitely one of those times. Two, possibly three first round picks, the Bears want to make a statement against the team that has owned this conference. As if the 106-65 drubbing of a bad Oklahoma St team wasn’t enough, now they are looking to have a coming out party on national television in the best venue in college basketball.

When I look at Baylor, I see balanced scoring, unselfishness and plenty of guys that can shoot. The only player averaging over 30 minutes a game is Jones III, while all 5 Kansas starters are over the 30min mark. I really didn’t think Scott Drew was a capable coach, but I think he just has enough good players to overcome his ineptitude in game planning. Baylor plays a 2-3 zone a lot which is where HCBS will have to be effective in his one day of preparation, but I trust the man to have the guys fully prepared for a coach he is 8-1 against. The best way to beat a zone is to hit your open shots behind the arc, which will probably be the biggest key to the game. The Jayhawks ball movement will create the open opportunities, but we just need to capitalize on them to win.

I see Jones and Robinson both having big games and kind of cancelling each other out and the game will be decided by contributions from the role players. I like Releford and Johnson’s ability to lock down on defense and limit the number of open looks behind the arc and have plenty of faith in Withey’s defensive abilities. As long as the big man plays his game, blocks some shots and takes it to the rim when Robinson draws the double team, I like that matchup.

Jackson and Taylor’s matchup at the point should be a good one of really fast guards. Taylor needs to avoid the dumbass, unnecessary drives into the middle where he just goes out of control and loses possession without a good look.

As far as the starters go I like how Kansas matches up, but the Kansas bench play as been so inconsistent and that’s what worries me. Baylor will be going 9 to 10 deep and Kansas really needs the best games yet out of Tehan, Young and Wesley.

Baylor has played a nice schedule, but no top 10 teams. This will be Kansas’s 5th matchup with a team ranked in the top 10. While the Bears did go to Northwestern and beat them by 28, that’s the only time I’ve seen them put away a good opponent. They beat SDSU by 10, BYU by 3, West Virginia in overtime by 2 and Mississippi St by 2 and have 3 of their last 6 victories decided by 2 points. 17-0 is what it is, but that many close games they are bound to trip up eventually and this is the best team they will have faced yet this year.

Kansas is 4-0 in conference play and in those 4 games has won by an average of 18.25 points. This will be the Jayhawks biggest hurdle in route to winning the 8th straight conference title, but if they can and get to 5-0 and give Baylor a black eye, it would go a long way in accomplishing that. Kansas has won 84 of the past 85 games at Allen Fieldhouse and that place is going to be as crazy as anyone has seen all year.

I’m looking forward to one of the best games all year and hopefully the Jayhawks come away with a win. Going 79-76 Kansas, but I am not going near putting money on that.

Yea, I get it, Tebow won a playoff game against a beat up team that didn’t have its leading tackler, because Denver is so fucking high above sea level. I think we’ve all been ear raped enough this week to know what happened, but that doesn’t mean shit for next season. The Chiefs clearly know how to beat that team and the longer they keep Tebow at quarterback the better for everyone else in my opinion. Now with the Chargers keeping underachieving Norv Tuner and the Raiders firing of Hue Jackson, you might as well pencil in the Chiefs right now as 2012 AFC West division champs.

How in the hell Marty goes 14-2 and gets fired and Turner continuously blows it with supposedly all this talent and keeps coming back is beyond me. Personally, I think the farther removed you get from Marty, the worse the Chargers roster gets. AJ Smith keeps letting backs like Darren Sproles and Michael Turner go and invests a high first round pick on Ryan Mathews, that right there shows you how much of a num nuts AJ Smith is. As long as those two are still there and there quarterback is still suffering from a severe vaginal infection, I’m not worried about them.

Tebow. That’s all that needs to be said. Fuck Denver. Even Brady is annoyed with all this publicity TebowChrist is getting. Looking forward to the 24 point beat down that Brady is going to unleash on them. Coach Crennel is going to game plan the shit out of Denver twice next year and they won’t be a problem.

The Raiders as always get the “What the Fuck Award,” for their most recent firing of first year head coach Hue Jackson. A big thanks should go out to Reggie McKenzie for taking a team that was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of the last rebuild and just shitting all over that and starting from square one. Good luck Mr. McKenzie, you don’t have much room for error on those 2 picks you have in next year’s draft, but I’m sure you will be able to nail your first pick as GM in the 5th round.

Now on to the Chiefs moving forward with their new man. Yes, the Chiefs are dealing with a new head coach to, but this is hardly your typical handing over of the reigns. The locker room already loves this guy and knows his style. He knows what he has and what he needs to get better already so no need for that first year of getting to know his system. With Eric Berry primed to come back for a huge year and Kendrick Lewis not having to do as much as he did this year, which by the way was a really encouraging year for him in my eyes, the Chiefs will have one of the strongest defensive units in the game. Not only with what we already have, but guys will want to come play for Romeo so I’m holding out hope that we actually bring in some impact free agents. I’m also in favor of taking Courtney Upshaw or D’onta Hightower and forming the best linebacking corps in the game. You had to hire RAC, because you would have to be blind to not see how much progress this defensive unit has made in his two years.

It appears are biggest area of concern is Matt Cassel. With a healthy Moeaki and Charles coming back next year, this team can win the division with Cassel. But to win more than that we need to find somebody else and at the top of that list for me would be Orton or Jason Campbell to come in and compete. I think Orton made it very clear how bad Cassel is at panicking under pressure and not being able to read off of his primary receiver. My best case scenario for the Chiefs quarterbacking issue outside of trading for a Peyton Manning if he is healthy, cut Cassel and bring in Campbell and Orton and let them duke it out. Whatever the solution is, my blood pressure can’t take much more yelling at the television because Cassel didn’t turn his head and find the streaking receiver down the field wide open. Watching Cassel definitely will not help me overcome my vulgar laden tirades I need to stop doing with a baby in the picture next season.

Either way we need an upgrade if we want to contend for a Superbowl next year and with this roster’s core of young talent getting better, I truly feel we are capable of being a dominant team with a couple nice moves. We won’t be a team like we were under Vermeil when we went 13-3 by outscoring people and playing no defense, but defense wins championships, (although this year’s playoffs would dispute that.) We don’t need a Joe Montana or Trent Green style quarterback to win, but we need someone who can go through his progressions and not lock on to his primary receiver and then flip out when someone runs his direction. It’s not that hard to turn around and hand it off to JC. If I’m a free agent quarterback looking to prove I can still play, I look at the Chiefs as the best possibility to succeed with the tools you have to work with in the backfield and a group of talented receivers.

Either way I’m fucking pumped as pumped can be for 2012. I’m pumped for Kansas City all around, Royals about to dominate and now Romeo Crennel ready to take our defense to that scary level and win a championship so I can finally get my Lombardi trophy tattoo.

For those of you who think I’m way too optimistic, you can go eat a dick. Pissed off and no hope is no way to go through life.

I think most of us here in KC are more worried about April’s draft then the playoffs, but I’m more pumped for some great playoff football. Mainly because the Chiefs will most assuredly find a way to not lock up a franchise quarterback, but instead go head first into the future on the coat tails of a mediocre signal caller, but we will have plenty of offseason time to address those feelings.

I do think these playoffs are pretty wide open and by that I mean there are probably 6 teams that could win it all as opposed to having a clear cut number 1 favorite.

Let me start in the AFC where I predict that handsome devil up top will emerge as the AFC’s representative in the Super Bowl.

I’m going mostly all chalk here. Although the Patriots defense is just horrible, Brady will continue this onslaught of touchdowns to his two tight ends and I don’t see another offense capable of even coming close to putting up enough points to beat the Pats.

The NFC I see 3 very capable teams of winning it all and one sleeper. Obviouisly the Pack, 49ers and Saints all speak for themselves as proven winners this season. I also see the Falcons as a team that could explode in the post season much like Green Bay last year. A popular sleeper pick might by the Giants as well, but with their secondary issues, they don’t match up well against the best or even their wild card opponent.

Wild card: Saints over Lions 38-35. Falcons over Giants 27-17.

Divisional: Saints over 49ers 31-12. Packers over Falcons 28-20

NFC Championship: Saints over Packers 42-35

The only team I see still dancing to the Championship round that plays this weekend is the Saints. I like them to emerge from a very entertaining group of teams that should produce some great games. Green Bay has too many questions on defense and the Saints are able to run the ball much better in a cold weather game.

Super Bowl: In one of the most entertaining and high scoring championship games ever, I predict the Saints over the Patriots 41-38 on a last second led drive by Drew Brees who will take MVP.

I will admit, I’m the guy who gets psyched up for the Royals every year. My hopes are high for a successful summer where the Royals only finish 10 games under .500 instead of 25. Every April, I log onto my expensive-as-fuck computer that I don’t use for anything other than Facebook and YouPorn, and check the Royals schedule.. Eh, Chicago’s down this year, Miguel Cabrera just received his 12th DUI of the Spring, and I feel good about the Royals shot at at least contending..

Things generally start well, then the club falls into a lull in late June. By August, I’m watching every fourth game they play, instead of religiously tuning in every night. My hopes of an AL Central Title are generally dashed by July. That’s the life of a Royals fan.

As the year comes to an end and we start a new one, everyone seems to think because it’s a different year that all this shit is going to be done differently. Get over yourself, if your overweight your still going to eat those double cheeseburgers, if you’ve smoked for ten years you might as well make it 11, I usually tend to avoid making resolutions cause I know two weeks in I will lose interest.

However, one thing everyone on earth seems to agree with is that to bring in the new year it is very appropriate to get shit canned while you slur your way through the countdown at midnight with all kinds of people you probably didn’t see all that much the past year and don’t plan on seeing all that much the coming year. It seems like even people who don’t major in blacking out kind of step their game up a little bit on this day. That can be a dangerous mix of grizzled veteran drinkers mingling with the rookies who have two Mikes Hard Lemonades and are making out with the cat. New Year’s parties are usually pretty entertaining for that fact, but if I’m not completely blacked out myself, I’m probably not enjoying the party. I thought I’d explore a couple things on how to successfully navigate your NYE party.

First off, lets touch on a point I made earlier about how people who aren’t used to browning out tend to head on over to the dark side for this annual party. What’s your deal? You stick to your 2-3 drinks on a weekend night all 51 other weekends, why try and be something you aren’t for the other? I’m talking to you girl throwing up at 10:30 causing a tremendously frustrating line for the pisser that will ultimately lead to people finding other “creative” places to relieve themselves. Also you, Mr. I just finished a semester so I’m stepping out of my comfort zone, who will annoyingly remind everyone every 5 minutes how far away we are from midnight. Do yourselves a favor and avoid the embarrassment you will most certainly wake up to the next morning and think was “cute” or “funny,” trust me, your performance was neither. Stick to the wine spritzers and Lite beer and let the pros show you how to stumble and slur.

If you’re going to make just an offensive amount of jello shots, make sure to keep them out of reach for the guy who after everyone is passed out that’s still scavenging for whatever booze he can find doesn’t locate them. You know you made entirely too many, because face it, if you do more than a handful of jello shots, your spewing straight jello after your next whiskey pull, but I digress. You don’t want this booze scavenger to find them, because if he finds them then you will find a nice pile of regurgitated Jello somewhere clever in the 10 foot radius that he passed out in and you better pray it wasn’t in your walking path when you get up.

If you’ve been in a long dry spell then NYE might be your best shot to get laid, at least until Mid-February or St. Patty’s day. Nothing makes people feel lonely like standing around while 80% of the party is trying to see who can jam their tongue farther down each other’s throats. My advice is to try and use that whole corny midnight kiss line first, I mean if it is there, then use it, but if you strike out with that one, don’t worry. Pay close attention to the rest of the party at midnight if your aren’t locked in a tongue wrestling match, the ones that have been left out will be feeling extra down on themselves and will more than likely hop on the next thing that pays attention to them. So stand back scan the crowd and go after the best of the worst. Even if this doesn’t work, you still have option 3 and this may be the trickiest one to pull off, but no sense in giving up just yet. Keep an eye on the drunkest dude whose hooking up with a chick and monitor that situation. He will have your target buttered up and ready to go and she will be extremely vulnerable and lonely when her date has pissed himself and passed out in the coat closet he mistook for the bathroom. An even ballsier move is to help him by showing him to that coat closet and explain to him that the host actually enjoys when people pee on their Eddie Bauer leather jacket. Not an easy one to pull off, but I’ve seen bigger upsets.

Hopefully you’ve made it past midnight still conscious at this point and the party is starting to fall off, between people going home with each other and others passing out, you decide it is time to get out of there. Don’t be an idiot and drink and drive, cops do actually know that people drink more on NYE. Not to mention all the drunks trying to get home so they can score having thrown logic to the wind because they have sex on the brain. Good luck getting a cab, probably won’t happen or at the very least you will be waiting longer than you will be able to stay up. Swallow your pride and sleep on the kitchen table if you have to. Or you can always not be a broke ass and get a hotel room within walking distance, whatever you do, don’t be that guy who goes to jail for DUI and then has nobody sober enough to come get you out or worse. Happy New Year.

With conference play starting this week coming up figured I would lay out my all Big12 teams. For the first time in 8 years Kansas probably isn’t favored to win the league title. Looks to be about a 4 horse race in my opinion with Missouri, Baylor, Kansas St and Kansas trying to make it 8 in a row. That streak is probably going to come to an end, but that streak of conference titles will last a while. With how competitive college basketball is today, you won’t see another big 6 conference team run off a string like that for a while. Player of the year looks like it will be between Thomas Robinson, Marcus Denmon and Perry Jones III. Below are my first and second teams.